General
Bela-Bela taxi crams 58 schoolchildren─── 08:27 Wed, 22 Jan 2020
Bela-Bela traffic authorities were left reeling after they stopped a minibus taxi, crammed to capacity with young school children.
In video footage circulating on social media, an officer is seen counting each child as they climb out of the vehicle.
The officer and the person filming the video sound incredulous as they count the fiftieth child, and continue counting until 58.
He then moves to the front of the vehicle to confirm that it has a capacity of 14 seats.
Shortly before the video ends, the officer is heard saying that "the driver will sing in jail".
The Limpopo traffic department's Joel Seabi confirmed the incident saying it was an "abhorrent disregard for the law".
The driver has been charged with overloading and the vehicle has been impounded.
"We found that the vehicle had not applied to the department to have an operating license for the category of scholar transportation," said Seabi.
He said officials will visit the affected schools to further deal with the matter.
